There are certain times and moments that cannot be described
in words. Rather their contents speak for themselves. Hours,
which by virtue of your having lived them, can take you back
at any time to generations past. This was the feeling we had
when interviewing one of the Chofetz Chaim's early
talmidim.

His name is HaRav Kalman Farber. For ten years he studied
under the tutelage of Maran, the author of Chofetz
Chaim and Mishna Berurah, zt'l.--Ten years of
life spent on a different plane, one of holiness,
ruchniyus, otherworldliness.

This can be understood by those for whom the very name
Chofetz Chaim elicits a certain tremor, for whom not
a day goes by without reaching for one of the tens of his
holy seforim. Are there any among us who can remain
impassive when sitting in the presence of an elderly man,
who retains a clear, bright picture, of his esteemed
rebbe, Maran the Chofetz Chaim, and who is able to
reenact his many conversations, sayings and mannerisms?

Rav Kalman Farber is more than willing to share his
wellspring of memoirs; all one has to do is sit and absorb
his every word uttered in his inimitable deep voice, a voice
whose clarity has not been marred by advanced age.

"So it's the Chofetz Chaim you came to hear about?" Rav
Farber opens the interview. "Ahh, three generations have
passed since then. Three whole generations separate us from
those days, that era. Today nothing is the same. Different
concepts, a different generation!" He becomes lost in
thought, but quickly shakes himself out of his reverie.

"O.K. I'll try to tell you stories that have not yet been
published in all the books about the Chofetz Chaim," begins
Rav Farber.

"For two years I had the privilege of participating in the
limited minyan of yeshivaleit who davened
Shacharis together with the Chofetz Chaim in his tiny
room. When I had just arrived at the yeshiva, the Chofetz
Chaim was still able to get around independently, albeit
slowly, and with two bochurim supporting him on
either side. Later on though, this too was difficult for him
and he would come to the yeshiva with "Avrumke, the baal
agola." [In eastern Europe at that time the main means
of local transportation was a horse and wagon. Avrumke had a
horse and would take the Chofetz Chaim wherever he needed to
go.] However, he continued to daven at home and a
steady minyan of bochurim was arranged.

Shemiras Hayodayim

"I noticed that whenever the Chofetz Chaim saw a fly or some
other pest that he wanted to chase away he would hold the
corner of his tallis or his handkerchief, but he
would never use his bare hands. Also he never touched his
face with his hands.

"For many years I could not understand the reason for this;
the face is considered a naturally-exposed area of the body
which one may see and touch. Recently, after having read the
stories written by his son, HaGaon HaRav Leib zt'l I
finally understood. Rav Leib told about the time that the
Chofetz Chaim fled with the yeshiva and his family from
Poland to Russia. It came time to daven Mincha and
they entered a shul. `Before davening,' Reb
Leib said, `I washed my hands as prescribed by the
Shulchan Oruch but I noticed that my father began
davening right away. Afterward I asked my father
about this and he answered, "I guard my hands at all times!"
'

"Now the reasons for the Chofetz Chaim's holy actions
finally became clear to me," Rav Farber says. "The Chofetz
Chaim was simply cautious that his hands remain tohor
at all times and therefore he did not touch anything. Just
as he guarded his tongue [from evil speech] he guarded his
hands! Therefore, when he had to chase away a fly he would
use something to cover his hands.

"From this we can gain an inkling of how the Chofetz Chaim
became what he was; just as he guarded his hands he guards
his eyes, his tongue-- everything!"

"Operation Rickshaw"

"If I already told you how the Chofetz Chaim would come to
the yeshiva, then I will tell you something that is almost
unprintable--but I'll tell you anyway. As I mentioned
before, the Chofetz Chaim had a wagon driver called Avrumke
who transported him to yeshiva at regular times. Sometimes,
though, the Chofetz Chaim would let us know that he wanted
to come to the yeshiva in the middle of the day. We were
then faced with the problem of finding Avrumke and his
horse.

"The Chofetz Chaim had his own wagon which stood outside his
house. It was padded and constructed in such a way that he
would be able to travel in relative ease and comfort. When
we were unable to locate Avrumke, one bochur would
simply take the place of the horse, while another would sit
in the driver's seat with his back to the Chofetz Chaim.
Other bochurim would then seat the Chofetz Chaim in
his place in such a way that he would not be able to discern
the nature of the "horse" or the identity of the driver!

"In this fashion they traveled the approximately 200 paces
from the Chofetz Chaim's house to the yeshiva. When they
arrived at their destination, a group of bochurim
would block the Chofetz Chaim's view of the "horse" and
"driver" as he was escorted into the yeshiva so that he
would never suspect the truth. A few bochurim were in
charge of this `operation'. "

They're Watching!

"If we are already discussing Avrumke the wagon driver, I
recall an interesting meeting I had with him, many years
later, in Eretz Yisrael. Once on Shabbos between Mincha
and Ma'ariv, I walked into a shul, here in
Tel Aviv, in the Kiryat Shalom section. I saw a group of
elderly men sitting around the table listening to one old
man telling them about his personal experiences with the
Chofetz Chaim: `Once I was driving the Chofetz Chaim to the
train station, and I saw an orchard on the side of the road.
One of the trees' branches, laden with apples, extended over
the road. Nu, so I stepped down from the wagon and went to
take some apples, when all of a sudden I heard a shout from
behind me, "They're watching! They're watching!"

"`Needless to say I hurriedly jumped back on the wagon and
drove away as quickly as I could. I could get in deep
trouble for taking those apples. As I drove away I looked
all around, but there was not a living soul in sight! I
turned to the Chofetz Chaim and said, "Rebbe, what did you
mean, they're watching? There's no one around!" "Ahh,"
answered the Chofetz Chaim, "of course they're watching,
they're watching from Above!"'

"I was understandably very curious to know who this old man
was," continues Rav Kalman, "so I edged closer to the table,
and I was amazed to see that it was none other than Avrumke,
the Chofetz Chaim's wagon driver! He was sitting there
recounting stories of his travels with the Chofetz Chaim. He
continued:

" `Nu, so how do you think we learned? The Chofetz Chaim
would recite the mishna by heart, word for word, and
I would repeat after him. "You see?" the Chofetz Chaim would
say after a while. "We learned a perek
mishnayos!"'

Rav Kalman interjects, "He would treat these plain people
with such simplicity and so naturally that they felt he was
one of them. I remember, that when I would return to the
tiny village where my parents lived for bein
hazmanim, they would ask me, `Nu, so how is Reb Yisroel
Meir doing?' That was how close they felt to him. On the
other hand, there is no denying the great admiration they
had for him. All the villagers would crowd around me waiting
to hear any story, or saying or hanhogah from the
Chofetz Chaim. They wanted to hear more and more.

"His humility and simplicity were absolutely incredible,"
Rav Kalman continues. "In his house there were no chairs,
just some long, rough-hewn benches and a plain, long table
that opened out at both sides. That was the extent of his
furniture.

"Now, when his son-in-law, Rav Mendel Zaks, zt'l was
appointed rosh yeshiva of Radin, an unpleasant
situation developed. Rav Mendel lived on the second floor of
the Chofetz Chaim's house. Now that he was rosh yeshiva,
bochurim wanted to come to him to talk in learning, but
there was nowhere to seat them. Not everyone felt at ease
sitting on the benches shoulder to shoulder with their
friends; they wanted a degree of privacy when speaking to
the Rosh Yeshiva. So, they ordered twelve chairs.
Some were put in the kitchen, some on the ground floor where
the Chofetz Chaim was, and the rest upstairs by Rav Mendel.
That's what was missing in the house--chairs!

"Then when the Chofetz Chaim came home and saw all the "new
furniture," he was aghast. `What is all this doing here?' he
asked, whereupon his family explained to him the reason for
the purchase.

"The Chofetz Chaim was still incredulous. `Twelve chairs?
Twelve? One I can understand, for the head of the household.
A second chair is also necessary for the lady of the house.
Let's say a guest comes, so, okay, the guest also needs a
chair. But twelve chairs? For what? "Hashem's Name is not
whole, and His throne is not whole." The Ribono shel
Olom doesn't even have one whole chair, and here there
are twelve chairs?!' The Chofetz Chaim was simply unable to
comprehend the purchase, and you must know that every word
of his was spoken with absolute truth and sincerity, with no
embellishment or exaggeration."

Faith That Can Be Felt

"Along with his tremendous astuteness and remarkable genius,
the Chofetz Chaim possessed a simple faith that is almost
impossible to describe. Everything was obvious and simple to
him, with absolutely no chochmos. He would speak to
Hakodosh Boruch Hu as if he were speaking to a king
who was standing right in front of his eyes, like a son
speaking to his father. Whatever happened to him, or
whomever he met -- he deemed nothing as coincidental or
without cause. For him, all events had their root in
spirituality, and he was able to learn a lesson from them.
Whatever he heard held deep significance for him, and he did
not believe that there existed anything that was devoid of
meaning.

"When he was in Russia, during the time that he fled with
the yeshiva from Poland, a certain Jew came to him to ask
for a brochoh. The Chofetz Chaim placed his hand on
him and asked, `Reb Yid, where are you from?' `From Minsk,'
was the answer. `And what is your occupation?' the Chofetz
Chaim continued to inquire. `I deal in animal hides,' the
Jew replied. `And how's business? Is it going well?' The
Chofetz Chaim asked. `Boruch Hashem business is very
good,' he answered.

"The Chofetz Chaim couldn't understand how a Jew could be
prospering under the tyrannical rule of Czar Nikolai, and he
voiced his puzzlement. `I work with the royal ministers,
they buy my hides,' the Jew explained. `Oy, you work with
the Czar's ministers?' the Chofetz Chaim asked. "How can you
work with them, they're murderers! How do you manage?'`I
bribe them,' the Jew explained simply. `Bribe?' continued
the Chofetz Chaim. `And without a bribe they won't purchase
your merchandise?' `Rebbe, if I wouldn't bribe them they
would start checking every single piece, finding all kinds
of flaws and defects, and in the end they might not even
agree to buy anything. What would I do then? So, I bribe
them and then everything goes smoothly; they take everything
without checking or examining too much.'

"The Chofetz Chaim immediately answered, `Aha, that's
exactly how things work with us! A person davens,
does mitzvos, but the prosecuting angels begin to
testify against him: Here his prayer was not the way it
should have been, there, while learning he fell asleep or
chatted, etc., in short, everything is blemished. So what
does HaKodosh Boruch Hu do in order to help this Jew?
He calls over the good angels. They immediately begin to
defend him saying, `What do you want from this Jew's prayer,
look how steeped he is in suffering! His wife is ill, his
son was conscripted to the Polish army, he has problems with
his parents. What do you want from him? This man also does
chessed, he gives charity to those who are alone and
destitute!' `And then,' continued the Chofetz Chaim,
`HaKodosh Boruch Hu takes this Jew and saves him from
all the prosecuting angels. This is the "bribe" that we give
to HaKodosh Boruch Hu! The charity we give and the
chessed we do -- that is what saves us!' concluded
the Chofetz Chaim.

"Whenever you walked into the Chofetz Chaim's house you
would hear a chiddush about some posuk or
other. Every day after davening we would hear from
him a gutte vort -- after Shacharis and also
after Mincha and Ma'ariv.

"He knew the entire Tanach by heart, backwards and
forwards. As soon as you would walk into his house you would
acquire a treasure: an interesting explanation on a
posuk. Afterwards the bochurim would come to
the yeshiva and tell over what they had heard: such and such
a commentary, or some story or interesting fact. Some of
these vertlach I remember till today," says Rav
Kalman Farber.

"One of the Chofetz Chaim's famous adages was: `People worry
about having with what to live, and I ask, do they have with
what to die?'

"Another one of his pet sayings was his commentary on the
verse, Mi ho'ish hechofeitz chaim, oheiv yomim liros
tov, `Who is the man who desires life, loves days to see
good.' Whoever really loves his days, must make sure that he
has good days. For we will meet our days [from this world
again] in Olam Haboh when everything will be shown to
us, and we will see for ourselves exactly how we spent our
days. We will be shown all the days in which we wasted our
time and did not learn, spoke forbidden speech, looked at
what we were not allowed to see -- everything will be
displayed to us as we undergo judgment. So the person who
really wants life and loves his days, and indeed wants his
days to be good ones, that person must see to it that his
days are good -- so that they will be good for him!

" `Why theft, of all sins?' asked the Chofetz Chaim and
answered with a story. `There once was a successful merchant
who had a store but went bankrupt. Those who had supplied
him with merchandise came demanding the money he owed them.
The merchant said that he had no money left since he went
bankrupt. As long as the merchant continues arguing with his
creditors all is well and good, and no action is taken. But
what if one of the creditors is bold and impudent? He will
demand his money back and when he sees that the merchant is
not able to pay up, he does not continue to negotiate with
the merchant as the others did, but rather simply takes
whatever merchandise he can seize from the store shelves.

" `As soon as he begins, all the other creditors follow suit
until the merchant is stripped of his last belongings. This
is how it works with us,' the Chofetz Chaim explained. `When
a person arrives in Olam Haboh he is met by all the
sins he committed during his lifetime, but none can do
anything yet to harm him. Theft, however, jumps to the
forefront and begins to accuse and prosecute, because the
angel that is created from a person's sin has the same
attribute as the sin itself. Since the nature of theft is
such that it is done with force and chutzpah,
naturally this is the sin that jumps forward to
prosecute. It shouts and does not give any peace, and then
as soon as it begins, all the other sins immediately begin
to shout as well.' "

Reb Kalman is quiet for a moment as he becomes immersed in
his thoughts and memories. "The Chofetz Chaim's approach to
everything was with total simplicity, but with a profound
understanding. When he would speak, his words were
palpable."

Do You Think that with a Brochoh you can
create a Ben Yeshiva?

"He was so open and spoke at great length, seemingly
effortlessly. He would tell us about incidents that happened
to him and then teach us the lesson to be learned. Once he
told us about a Jew who had come to him from the farthest
reaches of Poland for a brochoh. This man had a son
whom he wanted to see grow up to be a good Jew, a ben
Torah. `That is a wonderful thing, a truly wonderful
thing,' responded the Chofetz Chaim. `And what did you do in
order to realize this desire of yours?' `That's exactly why
I came, to ask for a brochoh,' the Jew answered. The
Chofetz Chaim was annoyed. `What?! You think that with a
brochoh you can create a ben yeshiva? Don't
you know, that these days you must be moser nefesh?!
Chinuch today demands mesirus nefesh! Not
brochos. With brochos you won't get anywhere!'
"

When You Cry Out to Hashem You Will Be
Answered

"Another time he told us that he was walking in the street
when he saw a man with a wagon full of apples, hawking his
wares in order to attract customers. The Chofetz Chaim
noticed, though, that not a soul came to buy from him. `I
came back two hours later,' the Chofetz Chaim continued,
`and I saw that the man was still standing in the same place
crying out to people to come and buy, but still no one came
to him. I went over to him and asked what he was shouting
about since he was not making any sales. The man answered
me, "Look Rebbe, it's true that I shout all day, but when I
come home in the evening and make an accounting of what I
have earned I see that boruch Hashem I have with what
to live."'

"`Do you understand?' the Chofetz Chaim asked. `A person
must cry out. When we cry out to Hashem once, twice, three
times, and then once again and yet again, Hakodosh Boruch
Hu answers! There is no question about it. We are
certainly no worse than that Jew. All we have to do is cry
out, to beg Hashem to answer us.'"

The Essence of Teshuva

"He was known to say, `What do you think a baal
teshuva is? Do you think a baal teshuva must put
on sackcloth? A baal teshuva does not need to put on
sackcloth. When a witness stands under the chuppah he
must be a kosher witness. How is this done? The rov says to
the witness, `You must do teshuva.' And what does the
Jew do? He turns to the side and says: `I regret the past
and request [Heavenly assistance] for the future.' And that
is what teshuva is all about, with no chochmos
or odd exterior trappings. A person who knows that he is
lacking in a certain area must work on himself to rectify
this. No more. That is teshuva.' "

Heavenly Reckoning

"In those days paralysis was extremely prevalent and many
people fell victim to it with no relief in sight. I remember
how the Chofetz Chaim would relate to this when speaking to
us: `Where does the disease of paralysis originate?' he
would ask rhetorically. `Why has this disease spread to
almost epidemic proportions during the last few years? If we
would examine it we would observe that this is indeed a very
strange affliction: A person has a mouth, a palate, lips, a
throat, everything, but he cannot utter one word from his
mouth! What happened? Paralysis! A person has legs, knees,
feet, everything, but to walk? Not even one step. What
happened? What does Hakodosh Boruch Hu want from
us?

" `Every human being has an account, an allowance of sorts.
For example, a person might be allotted a million steps in
his lifetime. After he has used up those million steps,
there are no more! Finished! And from then on the person can
still have feet and all the rest -- but to walk? Not one
more step. His allowance is depleted. Moreover, this person
must know that each and every footstep is written down.
Every step is reckoned. Guard your steps. Don't go to places
of wrongdoing. Don't waste what you were given.

" `A person has a mouth. Hakodosh Boruch Hu gave a
person a certain number of words in his lifetime. As soon as
he has used up all his words -- finished! He can have all
the organs of speech but not one word will he be able to
pronounce. Keep this in mind and guard your speech! Know
that every word is written down; each word is subtracted
from your allowance. Don't waste them!

" `The same goes for the eyes, the hands and all the other
organs of the body.'

"This was the Chofetz Chaim's explanation to us regarding
paralysis. And he said everything with such conviction and
vitality; you could see that he felt the truth of his words
with all his senses, and you could not remain
indifferent.

"When he spoke of the gentiles, of [idols of ] wood and
stone, he would literally laugh out loud at avoda
zora and you could really feel what he was saying."

Ruach Hakodesh

"Whenever he spoke of yeshivaleit he would say, `When
will we receive true gedolim? When? Rabbonim we have
plenty of, but who will bring us the genuine
gedolim?'

"He wanted and demanded that bnei Torah be true
gedolei Torah. Even from the older students he
constantly demanded more and more.

"HaGaon HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l was once speaking to
HaGaon HaRav Elchonon Wassermann Hy'd and told him
that once he spoke to the Chofetz Chaim when all of a
sudden, in the middle of the conversation the Chofetz Chaim
said, `When you begin a maseches you must always
finish it. Don't leave it in the middle.' Rav Aharon later
thought about what the Chofetz Chaim had said and realized
that he was actually guilty of doing just that. On many
occasions he had begun a masechta, learned a little,
and then left it there. `How did he know that?' Rav Aharon
asked Reb Elchonon. Reb Elchonon answered, `The same thing
happened to me! I was discussing something with the Chofetz
Chaim when suddenly he interrupted me and said that after
beginning a maseches one must finish it. `Genuine
ruach hakodesh!' both Rav Aharon and Reb Elchonon
agreed."